A Southwest Georgia lumber company, Langdale, uses a chipper on its land to grind up tree parts during harvesting that will be converted to power. SPECIAL/GEORGIA FORESTRY COMMISSION

Construction officially started Tuesday on what is expected to be the nation's first plant that will turn waste from the harvesting of pine trees into ethanol car fuel.

State and federal energy officials were on hand in rural Treutlen County, located about 100 miles west of Savannah, to break ground on Range Fuels Inc.'s cellulosic ethanol plant.

The private, Colorado-based startup hopes to be churning out 20 million gallons of fuel a year at the facility in Soperton after it's done with the first phase of construction in about a year.

While there have been several pilot projects working on turning woodsy plants into ethanol, Range Fuels' would be the first commercial operation.

Much of the work in the fledgling biofuels industry nationwide and in Georgia has focused on corn-based ethanol.

Range Fuels' plan is to take advantage of stubby pine trees and branches not used by Georgia's forestry industry to provide the feedstock.

"Range Fuels' production of cellulosic ethanol from wood materials will make Georgia a national leader in innovative alternative energy production," Gov. Sonny Perdue, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony, said in a statement.

"This project, and others like it, will boost economic development in rural Georgia and reduce our state's dependence on foreign oil."

Perdue also announced the launch of a marketing initiative to brand Georgia as The Bioenergy Corridor to promote the state's research and private investment efforts in the area.

"Georgia has been working with a number of potential bioenergy businesses within the past year," he said, adding that he hopes to announce more companies in the industry locating to the state.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman also attended Tuesday's ceremony.

Range Fuels received a $76 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the plant. Fifty million dollars will be used to build the initial phase, with the rest for future expansion.

The plant's investors hope to eventually produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a year at the site.

"The state of Georgia has provided us with an excellent opportunity to locate our first plant using its abundant, renewable forest resources as feedstock," Range Fuels CEO Mitch Mandich said in a statement.

The company touts the process as more environmentally friendly than corn-based ethanol because it uses a fraction of the water and does not rely on fossil fuels like natural gas to power the conversion process.

State government and forestry officials have pushed biofuel production heavily in recent years.

In Savannah, the board of directors for Herty Advanced Materials Development Center, a world leader in cellulose processing, recently approved a major $1 million investment of state funds to expand biofuel development in Georgia and to help make the Peach State even more attractive to alternative energy companies.

The investment will expand Herty's biofuel development facilities in an effort to reduce risk and increase speed to market for the state's fast-growing biofuel industry.

"We want Georgia to be the first choice for businesses considering a biofuel investment," said Ross Harding, Herty's vice president of business development. "The major benefit for the state is that biofuel is locally grown, locally converted and locally consumed. That means jobs for rural Georgia, environmental benefits for urban Georgia and energy security for all Georgians."

Herty partners with companies to develop, market and process innovative new applications for the state's forestry resources and is working to attract companies to construct new biofuel processing plans across the state.

This year, the Legislature approved measures giving plant operators tax breaks for building new facilities and grants for gas-station owners to add E85 fuel pumps that dispense ethanol-blended gasoline for drivers with flex-fuel cars.

For a while, the only public E85 retail pump in Georgia was located at a Shell gas station in Perry, but a second one opened Friday in metro Atlanta.

Jill Stuckey, director of alternative fuels for the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority, said there has been strong interest from gas-station owners to apply for the grants and begin expanding E85 distribution.

She said the agency hopes to start releasing money early next year.

About 6 million flex-fuel vehicles are on the road in the United States, according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, and several of the major American automakers are planning to release new models with flex-fuel engines that can run on either straight gasoline or an ethanol blend.

More info

For more information on the Herty Advanced Materials Development Center, call 912-963-2600 or go online to www. herty.com.